My Son is 16 months old. He is now a very good eater and eats a balanced diet, except for fat. We took him to get tests for allergies some time ago, since we have a family history of allergies. He can't have milk, but he can have yogurt and sharp cheddar. I stopped giving him yogurt, because he hasn't been crazy about it. He will tolerate it and eat it, for the most part. Here is a sample of what he might eat in a day, to give you an idea:
Breakfast: Banana, wheat pancake w/ sunflower seed butter
Morning snack: Applesauce, smoothie or fruit pop
Lunch: Green beans, a small amount of chicken, strawberries, grapes
Afternoon snack: Snap pea crisps, fruit
Dinner: Sharp cheddar, half a chicken breast, veggies, various fruits
Here is my worry. He doesn't get very much fat. He has taken to rejecting avocado all together. I used to be able to hide them in smoothies or puddings. Should I put hi back on the yogurt, even if he doesn't care for it? Is there anything else with good fat, that I could add to his diet? Thanks!!!
PS. I'm not worried about his weight, nor is our Dr. He is the average height of a 2 year old and his weight is normal. I know fat is important for his brain development, which is why I ask!
He can't have butter. He can't have almond milk, or any tree nuts. I have a very bad tree nut allergy. The Dr. recommended not introducing nuts to him, until he is 2 or older. We have a history of nut allergies throughout my family. Sorry, forgot to add that.
How about ground flaxseed, flaxseed oil or chia seeds in the smoothies? Extra protein and, with the seeds, fiber too.
Fats are very important, good for you to know that.
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Idiots Guide to Feeding Your Baby & Toddler
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Add some wheat germ into his pancakes, yogurt. Put a little olive oil on his green beans. What about adding almond milk? It has some fat and you can get it fortified.
Ditto the olive oil if you make pancakes from scratch you can also use coconut milk and oil it has lots of good fat. Good luck
My son is really skinny and very active, and our doctor said it's fine to add butter (unsalted butter, not margarine) to his food to make sure he's getting enough fat. It's easy to mix in with cooked veggies or meat, or just put some on a slice of bread. It seems like he's getting a good variety of healthy foods, so unless his pediatrician is worried about his weight, try not to let it bother you too much. You're doing a great job!
I put canned organic coconut cream in my son's oatmeal. Its not the Coco Lopez used for drinks!! Its is unsweetened and its very fatty. Yes, your son needs more fat in his diet, you are right to be concerned. I don't see the problem with frying up some cubed potatos with lots of butter or olive oil. My son like the butter but I am not sure if your boy can have it. He loves it. You can put a little salt on it to make it taste good. You can also feed your son soy yogurt with the coconut cream.
You can add a high quality, relatively neutral tasting vegetable oil (for example sunflower oil) to ANYTHING you make for him... smoothies, applesauce, cook the chicken in it or the green beans, add to pancakes... you name it. He won't even notice and just a teaspoon per meal will go a long way.
Good luck!
vitamins might work. i think you are feeding him o.k. just because he is not huge like this kids that are around today does not mean that he is small he just might be average and these others kids are huge! i have noticed that over the last 15-20 years that kids are just bigger then what they used to be! my son is considered"small" (he's 4) but he eats whatever whenever so i think he is normal. good luck and keep up the good work!
Kids do need fat in their diets.
Try buttered noodles. A lot of kids love buttered noodles (whole wheat noodles, if you can find them, but egg noodles are higher in fat).
Eggs, or egg yolks if he's allergic to the white part. Olive oil in moderation.
If he's not crazy for yogurt, try a different brand or flavor. If that doesn't work, you can add it to smoothies.
You can try soy butter in additional to the sunflower butter, as a PB-free alternative. I think there is something called "pea butter" (made by the same co. that makes sunflower butter), but I've never seen it in stores.
A tsp or two of flaxseed oil has a lot of omega 3s in it, which are really great for the brain. You can put that right in his smoothies and he'll never know. This can replace the avocado, if he won't eat that.
But you might talk to your pediatrician--ours gave us a great little chart that showed how many servings of the different food groups our child needs per day, and what 1 serving would be.
Also, you can get your son allergy tested for nuts, even if he's under 2. Our son was tested at 20 months because of a really bad reaction to peanut butter. It's probably a good idea, if you have bad nut allergies, to get him tested by a pediatric immunologist/allergist instead of just giving him some PB after he turns 2....
